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Another Giant Head

Begun in 1948 the Crazy Horse Memorial is still far from finished with no completion date scheduled.

The Black Hills region of South Dakota is unofficially the world’s capital of giant heads; four on Mount Rushmore and one memorial to Crazy Horse.

After a long drive to an aborted hike took us within 10 miles of the memorial, we decided to swing by and check it out. At the foot of the mountain we found a small information booth and figured we could get directions to a new hiking trail – the day was not completely lost. Or so we thought. When I approached the booth I must have missed the quote marks surrounding the word “information” because none was to be had there.

Resigned to the fact that hiking was not in our immediate future, I asked about the price of admission to the memorial. “$10 each.”

“But it’s not even close to being finished,” I protested. “Twenty bucks seems kind of steep, don’t you think?” A disinterested shrug answered my question. I persisted by pointing up the mountain. “I can see it from here for free.” Another shrug.

Closing my wallet, I promised to return once the memorial is finished. Expected completion date: undetermined.